The Edgar Allan Poe Heart-Quaking Double Feature consists of two low-budget offerings, Legend of Horror and The Tell-Tale Heart. The latter is a British cheapie but is the real gem of the two-fer of terror.
Buy The Edgar Allan Poe Heart-Quaking Double FeatureLegend of Horror (1971) is loosely based on Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart and centers around two prisoners, Pierre and Sydney, in a hellish camp where they are beaten and forced to hard labor. Sydney, the insane elder of the pair, keeps a rat he calls “Tommy,” reminisces in flashback about a one-eyed uncle, a past crime, and a hideous heartbeat. One day Syd offs a hostile guard because he kills Tommy. In the chaos, the duo escape past an old cemetery and to a barn owned by a foxy farmer named Theresa, who Pierre knows well. While on the run, Syd once again hears the beating of that hellish heart and manically keeps knocking off guards sent in pursuit.
Filmed in black and white and “Magicmation” this oddball was actually made in the 1960s as an Argentinian trilogy of Poe tales before it was cut up, cobbled together, and mixed with scenes filmed in the U.S. to try to make a new movie with one consistent story. Not so shockingly, some of the scenes filmed countries apart don’t quite match up at all. This leaves the movie scattered, disjointed, and bland overall, despite the decent score and sound effects and a climax filmed in color. The advertised gimmick of “Magicmation” is about 10 seconds of stop-motion knife action used during a murder scene. The best part of this amusing dud is, for sure, the sultry Theresa played by Fawn Silver, best known for her role as “the Black Ghoul” in Ed Wood’s silly horror “nudie cutie,” Orgy of the Dead.
The Tell-Tale Heart (1960) is the story of one Edgar Marsh (Laurence Payne). By day, he’s a librarian with an appetite for erotic photos, and by night, he’s a creep who peeps on his sexy new neighbor Betty Clare (Adrienne Corri), who lives across the lane. When he finally works up the nerve to ask her out, his good pal, the suave rascal Carl Loomins (Dermot Walsh), swoops in and sweeps Betty off her feet. One day, Edgar peeps the two in Betty’s boudoir across the way and the next time he sees old Carl he bludgeons him to death with a fireplace poker. Edgar then disposes of the body in his piano parlor and uses Carl’s dodgy past to help cover his tracks. Haunted by his deadly deed and the beating of that infernal heart, Edgar is pushed to insomnia and insanity. When he is finally discovered by Betty and the police, he flees but only to meet a spikey end…before being woken in sweat by his friend Carl and witnessing the arrival of a beautiful lady just outside his window on the street below.
Director Ernest Morris brings a solid atmosphere and a twisted deja vu ending to this low-budget affair that is surprisingly well done overall. It’s a slow-burning, period piece that’s a little naughty and must have been quite edgy for the time. This well-acted British cheapie also employs great use of score and sound effects (heartbeat, metronome, dripping faucet, etc.) to emphasize the terror of Edgar’s dip into insanity. The minimal visual/special effects (pulsing earth/floor boards, spike through chest) aren’t bad either and rather graphic by 1960 standards.
The Edgar Allan Poe Heart-Quaking Double Feature is completely saved by the 1960 version of The Tell-Tale Heart. Its solid acting and authentic gothic atmosphere make it worth the watch. Legend of Horror on the other hand, though it has a creepy cemetery, attempted gore, and a sexy vixen, is just too choppy and weak overall to make that movie worth a full re-watch.
